What about the one that the Turks were stopping drivers entering Turkey if they did not have a moustache and you had to sit at the border until you had grown one .
Does anybody ever remember that rumour that somebody started putting around in the early 1980âs about digging a tunnel under the English Channel so that the trucks wouldnât have to wait for a boat at Dover Docks .
I can remember that we all had quite a few giggles about that one.
Oldtimer Trucker:
Trawling throgh the web I came acros thes Astran trucks.
Salut, Oldtimer Trucker
The chap standing on the cab roof looks quite like a chap they stop to talk to in destnation doha i think he was giving them advice about where to cross the desert
Hi I met up with an Astran driver a few times who drove one of the Scanias painted in the colours of the above post. His name was Forbes something or other a nice bloke but IIRC he could drink more than the Scania
Gavin
Re the trip through Russia - Steve I also regretted not doing it, but after hearing the others stories maybe i donât. I also heard about the Russian âAutorouteâ later and had to smile. Alan said that when he went it was sugarbeat harvest time and the huge tractors when loaded would just drive through the shallow ditches straight on to the road carrying half the field with them, it was virtually impossible to tell which was field and which was road. They had to stick to a designated route and stopping places, Robbo said that they almost took his truck to pieces at the check point going in.Both Robbo & Duffy died young and Alan has not been in the best of health for many years. Makes you wonder what they put in the water!
Considering the problems Bromilow had getting transit permits ( which were numbered something like 0001/2/3/&4 ) I would be surprised if many others succeeded.We also discovered that Bromilow is supposed to be a Russian name, donât know if this helped or not.
76 was the only year the there was a shortage of Hungarian permits, they increased the allocation for 77
Also IIRC they didnât get proper stamps in their passports only loose slips of paper so none of them could prove that they had been.
Gavin
Gavin McArdle:
Hi all another pic I found TIR donkey carts I expect every driver knows the road but I bet mushroomman even knows the name of the horses
The first time we went up this hill it was in the middle of the night and we wernât shore if we were on the right road as our maps did not seem to be the same as the roads. Plus as you know they had their own alphabet letters.We had seen this mountain for some time in the distance and it looked like it was on fire. When we finally got to it, it wasnât just one fire it was loads of fires all over the mountain and the bigger the fire the more people were standing around it. This was a little scarry,lost,middle of the night ,Rumania,on a mountain with people around fires Doâs anyone know what that was all about ? been wondering for years.
Salut, Oldtimer Trucker
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The chap standing on the cab roof looks quite like a chap they stop to talk to in destnation doha i think he was giving them advice about where to cross the desert
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Was the suitcase on the top bunk for the drivers clothes or the permits ? and whats that hanging from the tow hitch ?
The more i look at that photo , the better it looks.
How on earth did that truck make it to the M/E without top spots,cab flags,bullfighting spears etc,ect ?
Hi suedhead, i would recon the suitcase was for his clothes, as there were not many permits required in those early days. You needed a german permit with no transit tax, an austrian with no transit tax, if you had a yugo permit from newcastle no transit tax if you bought one on the border you paid transit tax. From bulgaria onwards you didnt need a permit, although you had to pay transit taxes including turkey,syria and jordan. You also needed permits for Czech and hungary but no transit taxes, so you didnt need a big suitcase for permits.
Regarding what was hanging from the toe hitch it is a canvas water bottle, and somewhere on it will be an arrow head stamp from the british army. These water bottles had an aliminium screw cap and when you filled them with water itwould seep through the canvas and wet the bag, when the air, which could be as hot as 150 degrees hit the bag it cooled the water inside and you could then have what felt like a cold drink. Another trick that i often done was to put a cloth on my head and pour water over it and within minutes it felt cold. EEEh the things we done before we had air coditioning or Engal fridges.
Regards Jamie.
Hi Jamie, dont forget the wet towel around your neck and over your shoulders and an aluminium screw cap , that must of been the posh mark 2 model. My waterbag had a cork and it certainly kept the water cold.
Best regards Steve.
mushroomman:
What about the one that the Turks were stopping drivers entering Turkey if they did not have a moustache and you had to sit at the border until you had grown one .
Dave Richmond, maybe whilst on Duxburyâs, definitely had a story about being stuck on the Albanian border because his passport photo showed him with / without a 'tache, and in person he was the opposite - wish i could remember it properly
(ENGEL) fridges where about in the 70s but they cost an arm and a leg I had one for years till I jacked up the cab one day and had forgotten to strap it down and it came through the windscreen .I had a syrian ice box after that on the trailer bought it on the slope out of Damascus on the right hand side on the road to Jordan they were pilled 5 high in different sizes didnt have it fitted there as the guys welding was pretty sht.happy days
Location: the axis of diesel
Private message Dave Richmond, maybe whilst on Duxburyâs, definitely had a story about being stuck on the Albanian border because his passport photo showed him with / without a 'tache, and in person he was the opposite - wish i could remember it properly jj72
When I was on OHS a fellow driver told me [I know a friend of a friend story] that an ex OHS driver had been refused entry into Albania because he had long hair + a beard [apparantly a âno noâ under the dictator at that time]⌠So he cut his hair & shaved off the beard only to be once again refused entry into Albania, this time because he didnât resemble his passport photograph !! Probably a âdrivers taleâ but it made me laugh at the time !!
A mate of mine was on a Swiss firm running â â â â to Albania .He had long hair & a beard .Before he could cross the border the gave him short back & sides & cut his beard like Lenin.
sinbin31:
whats Abania got to do with ME,and stupid useless boring stories fact not fiction pls
Roger Haywood
1 )My story was fact .
2) You treat ME like its some religion
3 ) These threads are for open debate & not not your private playground.
4 ) ME was dead & buried for UK drivers years ago so get over it.
5 ) ME was never a big deal . I made more on salary running down to Spain & Portugal & having a ball than any of the guys flogging themselves to death on trip money doing ME.
Trucking is about making money : Those are the real facts ,not fairy stories.
sinbin31:
whats Abania got to do with ME,and stupid useless boring stories fact not fiction pls
Roger Haywood
1 )My story was fact .
2) You treat ME like its some religion
3 ) These threads are for open debate & not not your private playground.
4 ) ME was dead & buried for UK drivers years ago so get over it.
5 ) ME was never a big deal . I made more on salary running down to Spain & Portugal & having a ball than any of the guys flogging themselves to death on trip money doing ME.
Trucking is about making money : Those are the real facts ,not fairy stories.
sinbin31:
what grew out of your head when u wet it new brains
Roger Haywood
(ENGEL) fridges where about in the 70s but they cost an arm and a leg I had one for years till I jacked up the cab one day and had forgotten to strap it down and it came through the windscreen .I had a syrian ice box after that on the trailer bought it on the slope out of Damascus on the right hand side on the road to Jordan they were pilled 5 high in different sizes didnt have it fitted there as the guys welding was pretty sht.happy days
Roger Haywood
Itâs a shame that you didnât have a tache Roger, you could of wet it before you jacked up the cab .
sinbin31 wrote:
whats Abania got to do with ME,and stupid useless boring stories fact not fiction pls
harry wrote:
1 )My story was fact .
2) You treat ME like its some religion
3 ) These threads are for open debate & not not your private playground.
4 ) ME was dead & buried for UK drivers years ago so get over it.
5 ) ME was never a big deal . I made more on salary running down to Spain & Portugal & having a ball than any of the guys flogging themselves to death on trip money doing ME.
Trucking is about making money : Those are the real facts ,not fairy stories.
Hullo All,
Put him in the stocks and throw s**t at him, I thought you said this is an open debate (Harry) , well, it is and he was only voiceing his own opinion, thats what you do in debates. Theres no point in falling out over such a trivial matter, is there ? Never mind Rita we all love you anyway.
What a nice chap u are not I made a statement which was fitting to this thread if you want to abuse the drivers who did a job which most drivers at this present time would not be able to cope with SOD OFF and put it somewhere else with all your other stupid idiots ,The ME was an era of trucking history and for some memories linger on, dont nock it of how much you got paid ,because your prob telling stories ,what I said was not being nasty but if thats what u want so be it I dont give a sht about you ,and your stories ,If a vote was placed on here I think you would be outvoted your mocking many of my freinds who are no longer with us and I dont take kindly to that ,so lets drop it now because this thread was not designed for this kind of abuse.
.
Doâs anyone know what that was all about ? been wondering for years.
and an aluminium screw cap 
, that must of been the posh mark 2 model. My waterbag had a cork and it certainly kept the water cold.
